Bilateral cochlear implant prosthesis systems (i.e., cochlear implant systems that provide electrical stimulation to both ears of a patient) offer many advantages in terms of performance over conventional cochlear implant systems that are capable of only providing electrical stimulation to one of the patient's ears. For example, by applying electrical stimulation to both ears of a patient instead of one, bilateral cochlear implant systems are capable of providing a more realistic representation of audio content to the patient.
Unfortunately, however, some types of audio content are difficult for even bilateral cochlear implant patients to perceive. For example, bilateral cochlear implant patients often have a hard time accurately perceiving speech (e.g., lyrics) included in songs and other musical content, especially in the presence of ambient noise.
Unfortunately, traditional sound processing strategies that improve speech perception by a bilateral cochlear implant patient may diminish the quality of music as perceived by the patient. Likewise, traditional sound processing strategies that improve music perception by a bilateral cochlear implant patient (i.e., improve the quality of music as perceived by the patient) may diminish the ability of the patient to accurately perceive speech.